Merchant services for service provider catalog items

ABSTRACT

A service provider may obtain information about a plurality of items offered for acquisition by a merchant. The service provider may identify one or more items of the plurality of items that are the same as one or more respective items included in a catalog of items associated with the service provider. The items included in the catalog of items may be available for acquisition via the service provider. Additionally, the service provider may communicate with the merchant to offer services in relation to the items included in the service provider catalog of items that match the items offered by the merchant.

BACKGROUND

In some cases, a merchant may offer items, such as products or services,in their inventory for acquisition via a site of the merchant, such as awebsite. In other situations, a merchant may advertise items availablefor acquisition in a physical store of the merchant via a third-partysite, such as a merchant directory website or a social networking siteHowever, the exposure of items being offered for acquisition by a localmerchant are typically limited.

Additionally, service providers are often looking for ways to provideservices for a larger pool of merchants. For example, deal sites andecommerce service providers may seek to increase the number of merchantsthat are obtaining their services. In many situations, the number ofoptions for reaching out to merchants to provide information about theservices offered by the service providers is limited and theeffectiveness of some of these options can be inadequate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures, in which the left-most digit of a reference number identifiesthe figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of thesame reference numbers in the same or different figures indicatessimilar or identical items or features.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example environment to provideservices to a merchant for items included in a service provider catalog.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example content server, user device,and merchant device that are part of a system that provides services tomerchants in relation to items offered for acquisition in a catalog of aservice provider.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example item information matching module thatdetermines whether a merchant and a service provider are offering unitsof the same item for acquisition.

FIG. 4 is an example user interface including a proposal by a serviceprovider to provide services to a merchant with respect to items offeredfor acquisition by the merchant that are the same as items offered bythe service provider.

FIG. 5 is an example user interface including information about an itemoffered for acquisition by a merchant that may be available foracquisition via a site of a service provider.

FIG. 6 is an example user interface including information about a dealassociated with an item offered on behalf of a merchant that may beavailable for acquisition via a site of a service provider.

FIG. 7 is an example user interface that provides options for a merchantto enter data in association with an item offered for acquisition by themerchant to determine whether the item is the same as an item in acatalog of a service provider.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an example process to identify items offeredfor acquisition by a merchant that are included in a catalog of itemsoffered for acquisition by a service provider.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes systems and processes to provide services to amerchant for items offered for acquisition in a catalog of the serviceprovider. Additionally, the systems and processes described herein mayadd merchants to the pool of merchants obtaining services from theservice provider in an automated or partially automated manner. Thus,the service provider may decrease the amount of time and effort to addmerchants to a customer base of the service provider. Furthermore, theconvenience of obtaining services from the service provider in anautomated or partially automated manner may expand the number ofmerchants receiving information about the services offered by theservice provider and increase the number of merchants choosing to obtainservices offered by the service provider, due to the convenience ofobtaining the services of the service provider according to thesesystems and processes. In particular, since the service provider hasalready obtained information about items offered for acquisition by themerchants, the amount of time and resources expended by the merchants toprovide information to the service provider in association withobtaining services from the service provider is minimized. For example,a merchant does not have to take time to gather information about itemsoffered for acquisition by the merchant and then communicate thisinformation to the service provider. When a merchant chooses to obtainservices from the service provider, the exposure of items offered foracquisition by the merchant may increase. Accordingly, the number ofacquisitions related to the items may also increase along with therevenue associated with the increased number of acquisitions.

In particular, the service provider may obtain information from a numberof sources regarding items offered for acquisition by merchants. In animplementation, the service provider may utilize one or moreapplications to collect information from sites that include informationabout items that merchants are offering for acquisition. In some cases,the sites may be associated directly with the merchants. In other cases,the sites may be third-party sites, such as a business directory site, asocial media site, a deals site, an ecommerce site, or a combinationthereof. In another implementation, the service provider may obtaininformation about merchants in a manual manner. For example, employeesof the service provider may obtain physical copies of listings of itemsoffered for acquisition by a merchant, such as a menu or a papercatalog, and/or engage in conversations with individuals familiar withthe items offered by the merchant.

After obtaining information about items offered for acquisition bymerchants, the service provider may determine whether informationassociated with any of the items offered by the merchants matchesinformation included in a catalog of items offered for acquisition viathe service provider. In an implementation, the service provider maycompare information obtained about items offered by the merchants withinformation associated with items in the catalog of the service providerto determine if one or more of the items are the same. The serviceprovider may invoke a number of rules to identify items offered by themerchants that are the same as items offered in the catalog of theservice provider. In one example, the service provider may specify thata match has occurred when particular item information associated with amerchant and information associated with an item of the service providerare the same, such as a universal product code (UPC). In anotherexample, the service provider may specify that a match has occurred whena threshold amount of item information associated with a merchant is thesame or substantially the same as information of an item offered via theservice provider.

When one or more items offered for acquisition by a merchant matchcorresponding items in a catalog of the service provider, the serviceprovider may communicate with the merchant regarding services that theservice provider can offer to the merchant regarding the items. In somecases, the service provider may send an email, a text message (e.g.Short Message Service (SMS) message), a notification via an applicationassociated with a merchant device, an automated phone call, or acombination thereof to the merchant. In other cases, a representative ofthe service provider may communicate with the merchant via a telephoneconversation, an in-person visit, or both.

The communication between the service provider and the merchant mayindicate particular services that the service provider can offer withrespect to the one or more matching items. For example, the serviceprovider may offer to provide a page on a site of the service providerthat includes information about a particular item offered by themerchant. In one implementation, the information associated with theparticular item that is included in the page provided by the serviceprovider may be more than the information about the particular itemobtained from the information sources. In another example, the serviceprovider may offer to administer a deal regarding a particular item andprovide terms of the deal in the communication. In particularimplementations, the merchant may provide an indication to obtainservices offered by the service provider. Since the service provideralready has information about the one or more items being offered inassociation with the services, the services may be provided by theservice provider with a minimum amount of time and resources. Byoffering services to merchants regarding items being offered foracquisition by both the service provider and the merchants, theinformation about the items that is already maintained by the serviceprovider can be leveraged to offer services to the merchants with aminimal expenditure of time and resources on the part of the serviceprovider.

This brief introduction, including section titles and correspondingsummaries, is provided for the reader's convenience and is not intendedto limit the scope of the claims, nor the proceeding sections.Furthermore, the techniques described above and below may be implementedin a number of ways and in a number of contexts. Several exampleimplementations and contexts are provided with reference to thefollowing figures, as described below in more detail. However, thefollowing implementations and contexts are but a few of many.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example environment 100 to provideservices to a merchant for items included in a service provider catalog.The environment 100 includes a service provider 102 and one or moremerchants, such as merchant 104. The environment 100 also includes auser 106 that may communicate with the service provider 102 via userdevice 108. The service provider 102 and the merchant 104 may each offera number of items for acquisition. In some cases, the service provider102 and the merchant 104 offer some of the same items for acquisition.As used herein, items may include tangible items, intangible items,products, goods, services, a bundle of items, digital goods, digitalservices, combinations thereof, and the like. In one implementation, theuser 106 may acquire one or more items from the service provider 102,the merchant 104, or both. The acquisition of items by the user 106 maybe achieved through various means of providing value for the items, suchas purchasing items, renting items, borrowing items, trading items,bartering items, combinations thereof, and the like.

In a particular implementation, the service provider 102 may offer itemsfor acquisition included in a catalog of items 110. The catalog of items110 may include information about items offered for acquisition by theservice provider 102, such as one or more prices for each item, reviewsof items, ratings of items, images of items, descriptions of items(e.g., dimensions, features, etc.), identifiers of the items, inventoryinformation associated with the items, or combinations thereof. In somecases, each item included in the catalog of items 110 is associated witha unique identifier assigned by the service provider 102. The uniqueidentifier assigned by the service provider 102 may be in addition to anidentifier associated with a manufacturer or distributor of an item,such as a UPC code.

In some cases, the service provider 102 may be a merchant that isoffering particular items for acquisition. In other cases, the itemsbeing offered for acquisition via the service provider 102 are offeredon behalf of one or more additional merchants. In a particularimplementation, merchants may compete to be a merchant that providesitems for acquisition via the service provider 102. In an illustrative,non-limiting implementation, an item included in the catalog of items110 may be offered for acquisition by the service provider 102 on behalfof a single merchant. In some situations, the service provider 102 mayimplement a number of rules to ensure that multiple listings are notincluded in the catalog for the same item.

Items included in the catalog of items 110 may be offered foracquisition via a first service provider site 112 and a second serviceprovider site 114. In one implementation, the first service providersite 112 and the second service provider site 114 may offer differenttypes of items included in the catalog of items 110. For example, thefirst service provider site 112 may offer items associated withelectronics devices and electronic media, while the second serviceprovider site 114 may offer items associated with clothing articles. Inanother implementation, the first service provider site 112 and thesecond service provider site 114 may offer items to users located indifferent geographic regions. In one example, the first service providersite 112 may be dedicated to offering items for acquisition to userslocated in the California, while the second service provider site 114may be dedicated to offering items for acquisition to users located inNew York State. In another example, the first service provide site 112may be a national site that offers items for acquisition to userslocated in a particular country, while the second service provider site114 may be a local site that offers items for acquisition to userslocated in a particular metropolitan area, such as the Seattlemetropolitan area. In a non-limiting, illustrative implementation, whenthe second service provider site 114 is a local site, the second serviceprovider site 114 may offer items for acquisition on behalf of localmerchants.

At least a portion of the services offered by the service provider 102are services that may be obtained by the merchant 104. For example, theservice provider 102 may provide transaction services such that itemsoffered by the merchant 104 can be acquired via a merchant site 106 orvia a site of the service provider 102, such as the first serviceprovider site 108 and the second service provide site 110. In anotherexample, the service provider 102 may administer deals with respect toitems offered by the merchant 104. The service provider 102 may alsooffer fulfillment services for items offered by the merchant 104, suchas delivery to a particular location specified by a user acquiring anitem from the merchant 104 or facilitating an in-store pickup of itemsacquired by a user at a location of the merchant 104. The serviceprovider 102 may also offer search results services to the merchant 104,such that an item offered by the merchant 104 may be returned more oftenand/or featured more prominently in response to a search request havingparticular criteria.

In an illustrative implementation, at 116, the service provider 102 mayobtain information about items offered for acquisition by the merchant104. For example, the service provider 102 may obtain information aboutthe items from one or more information sources 118. In some cases, theone or more information sources 118 may include a site 120 of themerchant 104. The one or more information sources 118 may also includeadditional sites, such as merchant directory sites, reviews sites,ecommerce sites, social networking sites, micro-blogging sites, acombination thereof, and the like. In particular instances, the serviceprovider 102 may implement one or more algorithms to scrape sites toobtain information about merchants. Scraping a site may includeextracting information from a site. For example, scraping a site mayinclude obtaining and analyzing code associated with a page of a site.In some cases, the information from the site may be filtered to obtainparticular information from the site. In this way, the service provider102 may obtain information about items offered for acquisition by themerchant 104 on behalf of the merchant with minimal effort from themerchant 104.

Additionally, the one or more information sources 118 may includephysical documents, such as menus, catalogs, advertisements, etc. Whenthe information sources 118 include physical documents, the informationincluded in the physical documents may be converted to into amachine-readable form before being stored by the service provider 102.In some cases, one or more filtering algorithms may be applied to thescanned documents to identify particular information corresponding toitems being offered for acquisition by merchants, such as a UPC, aprice, a description, an image, and the like. In other implementations,the information from the physical documents may be entered into adatabase of the service provider 102 manually, such as data entry via auser interface.

In some instances, when information about items offered by merchants isobtained from individuals, this information may be manually entered intoa database of the service provider 102 via a suitable user interface.For example, employees of the service provider 102 may obtaininformation about items offered for acquisition by merchants fromconversations with representatives of the merchants, conversations withcustomers of the merchants, conversations with third-parties, or acombination thereof. During or after these conversations, relevantinformation included in the conversations regarding items offered foracquisition by merchants may be entered into a database of the serviceprovider 102 by the employees of the service provider 102 via the userinterface. In an additional implementation, the conversations includinginformation about items offered for acquisition by merchants may berecorded and the service provider 102 may utilize one or more speechrecognition algorithms to convert the speech to text. A number offiltering techniques may then be applied to the text of theconversations to extract information relating to items offered foracquisition by merchants.

At 122, the service provider 102 may determine whether first iteminformation 124 offered for acquisition by the merchant 104 matchessecond item information 126 included in the catalog of items 110. Thefirst item information 124 may include a portion of the informationobtained about items offered for acquisition by the merchant 104 fromthe information sources 118, and the second item information 126 mayinclude a portion of information included in the catalog of items 110.In a particular implementation, the service provider 102 may compare thefirst item information 124 with the second item information 126. In oneimplementation, when specified portions of the first item information124 correspond with the second item information 126, the serviceprovider 102 may determine that both the first item information 124 andthe second item information 126 are associated with the same item 128.For example, when a UPC included in the first item information 124matches a UPC included in the second item information 126, the serviceprovider 102 may determine that the first item information 124 and thesecond item information 126 correspond to the same item 128. In anotherimplementation, when a threshold amount of information included in thefirst item information 124 corresponds to information included in thesecond item information 126, the service provider 102 may determine thatthe service provider 102 and the merchant 104 are offering units of thesame item 128 for acquisition. To illustrate, when an image included inthe first item information 124 corresponds to an image included in thesecond item information 126 and a portion of an item descriptionincluded in the first item information 124 corresponds to a portion ofan item description included in the second item information 126, theservice provider 102 may determine that the service provider 102 and themerchant 104 are offering units of the same item 128 for acquisition.

At 130, the service provider 102 may communicate with the merchant 104to provide one or more services to the merchant 104 regarding one ormore items offered for acquisition by the merchant 104. For example, theservice provider 102 may send a communication, such as an email or atext message, including a proposal 132 to the merchant 104 to offerservices in relation to items offered for acquisition by the merchant104 that match items included in the catalog of items 110. In anotherexample, a representative of the service provider 102 may contact themerchant 104 regarding the proposal 132 in person or via a telephonecall.

In one implementation, the proposal 132 may indicate that the merchant104 can offer the item 128 for acquisition via the first serviceprovider site 112, the second service provider site 114, or both. Inanother implementation, the proposal 132 may indicate that the serviceprovider 102 can administer a deal for the merchant 102 in relation tothe item 128. In a further implementation, the proposal 132 may indicatethat the service provider 102 can increase the exposure of the item 128on the first service provider site 112, the second service provider site114, or both by providing enhanced search results services with respectto the item 128. The enhanced search results services may morefrequently return a result associated with the merchant 104 offering theitem 128 for acquisition in response to a search for items associatedwith certain criteria and/or the enhanced search results services mayspecify that a result associated with the merchant 104 offering the item128 for acquisition will appear in a higher position of a ranked list ofsearch results that are provided in response to a search for itemsassociated with specified criteria.

The communication between the service provider 102 and the merchant 104,at 130, may also include the service provider 102 receiving a response134 from the merchant 104 regarding the proposal 132. The response 134may indicate an acceptance of the proposal 132, a rejection of theproposal 132, or a modification of the proposal 132. In one situation,the merchant 104 may modify the proposal 132 by suggesting alternativeterms of a deal being proposed by the service provider 102 or offeringthe item 128 for acquisition via the second service provider site 114 atan alternative price. In some cases, the service provider 102 mayreceive an electronic version of the response 134, such as an email ortext message, while in other instances the service provider 102 mayreceive the response 134 via a telephone call or an in-person visit froma representative of the merchant 104.

At 136, the service provider 102 may provide services to the merchant104 corresponding to items offered for acquisition by the merchant 104.For example, the service provider 102 may provide the item 128 foracquisition via the first service provider site 112, the second serviceprovider site 114, or both. In a particular implementation, secondservice provider site 114 may correspond to a site that provides itemsfor acquisition to individuals located in the same geographic region asthe merchant 104 and the service provider 102 may provide the item 128for acquisition via the second service provider site 114. In anotherexample, the service provider 102 may offer a deal with respect to theitem 128. In a further example, the service provider 102 may provideenhanced search results services for the merchant with respect to theitem 128. To illustrate, the user 106 may submit a search request to theservice provider 102 for items matching one or more criteria. Inresponding to the search request, the service provider 102 may identifyone or more merchants offering items matching the one or more criteria.In a particular situation, the item 128 may match the one or morecriteria of the search request. When providing a response to the usercorresponding to the search results, the service provider 102 mayemphasize a result associated with the merchant 104 offering the item128 with respect to other search results.

Example Content Server

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example system 200 including acontent server 202, a user device 128, a merchant device 204, and aservice provider 102 that provides services to merchants in relation toitems offered for acquisition by the merchants and in a catalog of theservice provider 102. In an embodiment, the content server 202 mayinclude a single server, a cluster of servers, a server farm or datacenter, and so forth, although other server architectures (e.g., amainframe architecture, a cloud computing architecture, etc.) may alsobe used. The user device 108 operated by the user 106. The user device108 may include a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a smart phone, anelectronic reader device, a mobile handset, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a portable navigation device, a portable gaming device, a tabletcomputer, a watch, a portable media player, another client device, andthe like. In some situations, the user 106 may acquire items via theservice provider 102, such as a site of the service provider 102.Additionally, the merchant device 204 may include a computing device(e.g., laptop computer, desktop computer, smart phone, tablet computer,etc.), a server computer, a point-of-sale device, combinations thereof,and so forth. In some cases, the merchant device 204 may be operated bya representative of the merchant 104 to communicate with the serviceprovider 102 in relation to offering items of the merchant 104 foracquisition via the service provider 102.

In addition, the system 200 includes one or more information sources 118that include information about merchants, such as information aboutitems offered for acquisition by the merchants. In some cases, theinformation sources 118 may include one or more merchant sites, such asthe merchant site 120 of the merchant 104, one or more merchantdirectory sites, one or more deal sites, one or more ecommerce sites,one or more social networking sites, one or more micro-blogging sites, acombination thereof, and the like. In other cases, the informationsources 118 may include physical documents, such as menus,advertisements, periodicals, catalogs, a combination thereof, and soforth.

The content server 202, the user device 108, the merchant device 204, atleast a portion of the information sources 118, or combinations thereof,may communicate via a network 206. The network 206 may include any oneor combination of multiple different types of wired and wirelessnetworks, such as the Internet, cable networks, satellite networks, widearea wireless communication networks, wired local area networks,wireless local area networks, and public switched telephone networks(PSTN).

The content server 202 includes one or more processors represented byprocessor 208. In some situations, the processor 208 may include acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or botha CPU and GPU, or other processing units. Additionally, the processor208 may include a local memory that may store program modules, programdata, and/or one or more operating systems.

The content server 204 also includes computer-readable media 210 that isaccessible by the processor 208. The computer-readable media 210 is anexample of computer readable storage media and may include volatilememory, nonvolatile memory, removable memory, non-removable memory, or acombination thereof. For example, the computer-readable media 210 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, one ormore hard disks, solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD, DVD), orother non-transient memory technologies. The computer-readable media 210may store a number of modules including computer-readable instructionsexecutable by the processor 208 to offer items of merchants foracquisition.

The content server 202 also includes, or is coupled to, a data store 212that may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory,one or more hard disks, solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD,DVD), or other non-transient memory technologies. The data store 212stores a catalog of items 110 that includes information about items,such as the item 128, offered for acquisition via the service provider102. In some cases, the items may be offered on behalf of a particularmerchant, such as the merchant 104. In other cases, the items includedin the catalog of items 110 may be offered on behalf of the serviceprovider 102, such as when the service provider 102 is acting as amerchant. In one implementation, the information included in the catalogof items 110 may include prices of items, images of items, descriptionsof items, features of items, ratings of items, reviews of items, titlesof items, identifiers of items, combinations thereof, and so forth.

The data store 212 also stores merchant item information 214 thatincludes information obtained from the information sources 106 aboutitems offered for acquisition by one or more merchants. In animplementation, the merchant item information 214 may include prices ofitems offered by merchants, descriptions of items offered by merchants,features of items offered by merchants, images of items offered bymerchants, titles of items offered by merchants, identifiers of itemsoffered by merchants, discounts offered in association with itemsoffered by merchants, combinations thereof, and so on.

Further, the data store 212 stores item acquisition information 216 thatincludes information corresponding to acquisitions of items via theservice provider 102. For example, the item acquisition information 216may include item acquisition history of individuals, preferences ofindividuals, item search/browse history of individuals, dealbrowse/search history of individuals, financial transaction informationfor acquisitions of items and/or deals by individuals, location ofindividuals (e.g. current location, predicted location, user specifiedlocation, etc.), reputation of individuals, combinations thereof, andthe like. In some cases, the item acquisition information 216 mayinclude data from accounts of individuals with the service provider 202(e.g. profile information, payment instrument information, dealscurrently in effect, etc.).

In the illustrative implementation of FIG. 2, the computer-readablemedia 210 includes an information gathering module 218 that isexecutable by the one or more processors 208 to obtain information aboutitems offered for acquisition by merchants and store the information inthe data store 212 as part of the merchant item information 214. In somesituations, the information gathering module 218 may obtain informationabout items offered for acquisition by merchants from the informationsources 118. In addition, the information gathering module 218 mayobtain information about items offered for acquisition by merchants onbehalf of the merchants. For example, the merchant 104 may request thatthe service provider 102 obtain information about items offered foracquisition by the merchant 104. In another example, the informationgathering module 218 may obtain information about items offered foracquisition by the merchant 104 without receiving a request from themerchant 104.

In one implementation, the information gathering module 218 may scrapesites to obtain information about items offered for acquisition bymerchants. In another implementation, the information gathering module218 may provide one or more user interfaces to receive informationregarding items offered for acquisition by merchants. For example,representatives of the service provider 102 may have conversations withindividuals, such as representatives of merchants, customers ofmerchants, etc., to gather information about items offered foracquisition by merchants. In these situations, the representatives ofthe service provider 102 may enter the information obtained about themerchant items in these conversations via the user interfaces.Representatives of the service provider 102 may also enter informationabout items offered by merchants via the user interfaces provided by theinformation gathering module 218 that the representatives read from aphysical document, viewed on a television screen or computer displaydevice, heard on the radio, or a combination thereof. Further, theinformation gathering module 218 may provide user interfaces forcustomers of the service provider 102 to enter information regardingitems offered for acquisition by merchants.

In other implementations, the information gathering module 218 mayreceive information from an optical scanner, audio output device, orboth associated with items offered for acquisition by merchants. Toillustrate, physical documents including information about items offeredby merchants may be scanned by representatives of the service provider102. The information from the scanned documents may be subjected to anoptical character recognition process and one or more filteringalgorithms to extract particular information associated with itemsoffered by merchants, such as prices of the items, identifiers of theitems, descriptions of the items, and so forth. Additionally,conversations and/or audio advertisements may be analyzed by a speechrecognition program and one or more filtering algorithms to extractinformation related to items offered for acquisition by merchants.

The computer-readable media 210 also includes an item informationmatching module 220 that is executable by the one or more processors 208to identify items offered for acquisition by merchants that are alsostored in the catalog of items 110. In some cases, the item informationmatching module 220 may compare information about items offered foracquisition by merchants stored in the merchant item information 214with information stored in the catalog of items 110. In oneimplementation, when specified item information stored in the merchantitem information 214 matches specified item information stored in thecatalog of items 110, the item information matching module 220 maydetermine that a merchant and the service provider 102 are offeringunits of the same item for acquisition. For example, the iteminformation matching module 220 may determine that both the merchant 104and the service provider 102 are offering units of the item 128 foracquisition when a UPC included in item information of the merchant 104matches a UPC in the catalog of items 110.

In another implementation, the item information matching module 220 maydetermine that a merchant is offering units of an item for acquisitionthat is also included in the catalog of items 110 based at least partlyon a threshold amount of item information included in the catalog ofitems 110 being the same as item information included in the merchantitem information 214. To illustrate, when a threshold number of wordsincluded in an item description in the merchant item information 214match a corresponding number of words included in an item descriptionincluded in the catalog of items 110, the item information matchingmodule 220 may determine that the item descriptions are associated withthe same item and that the service provider 102 and the merchant areoffering units of the same item for acquisition. In anotherillustration, the item information matching module 220 may determinethat item information associated with a merchant and item informationincluded in the catalog of items 110 corresponds to the same item when athreshold amount of an image included in the merchant item information214 matches a corresponding amount of an image included in the catalogof items 110.

In some implementations, the item information matching module 220 maysend a communication to a merchant requesting more information todetermine whether the merchant and the service provider 102 are offeringunits of the same item for acquisition. For example, when particularinformation is not found for an item offered by a merchant in thecatalog of items 110, such as a UPC code, or a threshold amount ofinformation associated with an item offered by a merchant is not foundthat matches information in the catalog of items 110, the serviceprovider 102 may communicate with the merchant to provide the missinginformation to determine whether the merchant and the service provide102 are offering the same item for acquisition.

Additionally, in some scenarios, when information about an item offeredby a merchant does not match information in the catalog of items 110,the item information matching module 220 may provide the merchant withan option to add the item to the catalog of items 110. In oneimplementation, the service provider 102 may request additionalinformation from the merchant to add the item to the catalog of items110. For example, the service provider 102 may request that the merchantprovide an image of the item, a price of the item, a description of theitem, a UPC of the item, a title of the item, a combination thereof, andthe like before adding the item to the catalog of items 110. In thissituation, the item information matching module 220 may provide a userinterface for the merchant to enter the information requested by theservice provider 102.

In a particular implementation, the item information matching module 220may also determine whether a merchant is offering a deal thatcorresponds to an item included in the catalog of items 110. Forexample, after determining that the merchant and the service provider102 are offering the same item for acquisition, the item informationmatching module 220 may determine whether the merchant informationassociated with the item includes a discounted price and a durationrelating to the discounted price.

The computer-readable media 220 also stores a merchant proposal module222 to communicate with merchants regarding proposals to provideservices offered by the service provider 102. In one implementation,when the item information matching module 220 determines that a merchantand the service provider 102 are offering units of the same item foracquisition, the merchant proposal module 222 may send a communicationto the merchant regarding services offered by the service provider 102in relation to the item. In one example, the service provider 102 mayoffer to administer a deal for the merchant in relation to the item. Insome cases, the merchant may already be offering the deal, but theservice provider 102 may offer to distribute information about the dealvia a site of the service provider 102. In another example, the serviceprovider 102 may offer to provide acquisition and fulfillment servicesfor the merchant. In an additional example, the service provider 102 mayoffer to provide item search related services to the merchant, such asenhanced search results services.

In an illustrative implementation, the communication sent to a merchantregarding services being offered by the services provider 102 mayinclude links to access previews of the services being offered by theservice provider 102. For example, the communication may provide a linkto access a page of the service provider 102 that includes informationabout a deal associated with items offered by the merchant. In somecases, the terms of the deal may be provided by the service provider102, while in other cases, the terms of the deal may be set by themerchant. Additionally, the communication may provide a link to access apage of the service provider 102 where items of the merchant may beacquired such that the financial transactions that take place to acquirethe items are conducted through the service provider 102.

In an implementation, when the item information matching module 220identifies a number of items that both a merchant and the serviceprovider 102 are offering for acquisition, the communication provided tothe merchant regarding services offered by the service provider 102 withrespect to the matching items may include recommendations to obtainservices from the service provider 102 for particular items. Forexample, acquisition data for the matching items may be utilized by theservice provider 102 to provide the recommendations. To illustrate, theservice provider 102 may recommend obtaining services in relation toitems having a particular frequency of acquisition, items having highratings, items associated with a specified number of positive reviews,or a combination thereof. In particular situations, the recommendationsmay be based at least partly on acquisition data corresponding to thegeographic region where the merchant is located.

After providing a communication to the merchant regarding the proposalto offer services for the merchant, the merchant proposal module 222 mayreceive a response from the merchant. In some cases, the merchant mayindicate no interest in receiving services from the service provider102. In other situations, the merchant may agree to receive servicesfrom the service provider 102 corresponding to one or more items offeredfor acquisition by the merchant that are also offered for acquisitionvia the service provider 102. In a particular implementation, thecommunication from the merchant may include a counterproposal thatincludes suggestions to modify the terms of the initial proposal by theservice provider 102. In one implementation, the counterproposal mayinclude a modified price of an item, modified terms of a deal (e.g.discount associated with the deal), one or more different items for themerchant to receive services from the service provider 102, or acombination thereof. The service provider 102 may accept thecounterproposal of the merchant or send additional modifications to theproposal to the merchant.

In the illustrative implementation of FIG. 2, the computer-readablemedia 210 includes a merchant services system 224 to provide services tomerchants regarding particular items offered for acquisition by themerchants. In particular, the merchant services system 224 includes adeals module 226 that administers deals for merchants. In oneimplementation, the deals module 226 may administer a deal associatedwith an item that is offered for acquisition by both the merchant andthe service provider 102. In some cases, the deal may have originallybeen administered by the merchant and provided via a site of themerchant. In other cases, the deal may have originally been administeredby a deal sourcer on behalf of the merchant. The deal sourcer mayprovide deals on behalf of a number of merchants, such as via a site ofthe deal sourcer. In additional cases, the deal may have been proposedby the service provider 102. In these instances, the service provider102 may provide the original terms of the deal or the service provider102 may suggest alternative terms of an existing deal for the merchant.

In a particular implementation, the deals module 226 may administer thedeal by providing information about the deal via a site of the serviceprovider 102. In one scenario, the site may be a deals site of theservice provider 102 that includes deals associated with a number ofmerchants. In another situation, the site may be an ecommerce site ofthe service provider 102. In a further implementation, the site mayinclude information about merchants located in a specific geographicregion, such as a particular city or metropolitan area.

In a particular implementation, the deals module 226 may conducttransactions for users to acquire deals of a merchant. For example, thedeals module 226 may receive requests from users to acquire deals of themerchant and initiate communications with one or more financialinstitutions to obtain funds so that a particular user can acquire adeal via the service provider 102. In some cases, the currency utilizedto acquire a deal may be a virtual currency. To illustrate, the serviceprovider 102 may provide a virtual currency that users can submit toacquire items and/or deals via the service provider 102. The dealsmodule 226 may also execute operations directed to the redemption ofdeals, such as providing vouchers including one or more identifiers inassociation with deals acquired via the service provider 102 andverifying the identifiers during the redemption of deals by users.

The merchant services system 224 may also store an acquisition andfulfillment module 228 that conducts operations related to theacquisition of items of merchants being offered via the service provider102. In one implementation, the acquisition and fulfillment module 228may facilitate transactions via a site of the service provider 102and/or a site of the merchant 104 for users to acquire units of itemsoffered on behalf of the merchant 104 via the service provider 102. Theacquisition and fulfillment module 228 may also facilitate thefulfillment of the acquisition of items offered via the service provider102. In some cases, the service provider 102 may offer a number offulfillment options, such as an in-store pickup option, an overnightdelivery option, a two-day delivery option, a standard delivery option,or a combination thereof. In an implementation, the acquisition andfulfillment module 228 may communicate with the merchant 104 to indicatethat an item offered on behalf of the merchant 104 has been acquired viathe service provider 102. For example, the acquisition and fulfillmentmodule 228 may provide a voucher to a user that has acquired a unit ofan item from the merchant 104. The voucher may include a firstidentifier corresponding to the user and a second identifiercorresponding to the item acquired. The acquisition and fulfillmentmodule 228 may also send a communication to the merchant 104 indicatingthat the user has requested to acquire a unit of the item. In somecases, the communication may include a copy of the voucher so that themerchant 104 can verify the acquisition of the item when the user picksup the item from a location of the merchant 104.

In some cases, the extent of the involvement of the service provider 102in the acquisition and fulfillment of items via the service provider 102may depend, at least in part, on the services acquired by the merchant104 from the service provider 102. In one example, the service provider102 may provide a page on a site of the service provider 102 indicatingthat the merchant 104 offers a unit of a particular item for acquisitionand that also includes a link to redirect a user to a site of themerchant 104 or an ecommerce site where the user can initiate atransaction to acquire a unit of the item. In another example, theservice provider 102 may provide a page of a site of the serviceprovider 102 that includes information about an item offered foracquisition by the merchant 104 and that includes options selectable toinitiate a transaction to acquire a unit of the item.

Additionally, the merchant services system 224 may store an item searchmodule 230 that receives search requests to identify items offered foracquisition via the service provider 102 that match one or morecriteria. In some cases, the search requests may include one or morekeywords. In response to receiving a search request, the item searchmodule 230 may analyze information associated with items included in thecatalog of items 110 to identify particular items that match the one ormore criteria of the search request. The item search module 230 may thenprovide a response to the search request that includes informationassociated with at least a portion of the search results.

In some cases, the search results returned by the item search module 230may depend on the services obtained by merchants in relation to itemsbeing offered for the merchants via the service provider 102. In somecases, the item search module 230 may consider whether or not a merchantoffering a particular item that is associated with the keywords of thesearch request has acquired enhanced search results services from theservice provider 102 in determining the items to include in the searchresults, the order in which the search results are presented, or both.For example, the merchant 104 may acquire enhanced search resultsservices from the service provider 102 in conjunction with an itemoffered by the merchant 104 that is included in the catalog of items110. The enhanced search results services offered by the serviceprovider 102 may cause the item of the merchant 104 to appear in searchresults more often in association with acquiring units of the item thanmerchants that have not acquired the enhanced search results services.In one example, the merchant 104 may be emphasized with respect to othermerchants included in the search results. To illustrate, the merchant104 may be placed at or near the top of the list of search results withrespect to a search for a particular item, such as the item 128. Inanother illustration, the merchant 104 may be designated on a searchresults page as a sponsored result. In another example, the item searchmodule 230 may calculate scores for merchants and/or items to determinewhether or not to include a particular merchant in search results for agiven search request. In this instance, a merchant may have an enhancedscore due to the merchant acquiring enhanced search results servicesfrom the service provider 102.

In other scenarios, higher scores for merchants may be generated by theitem search module 230 for additional reasons. For example, item searchmodule 230 may generate a higher score for the merchant 104 at leastpartly in response to the merchant 104 providing additional informationabout items offered for acquisition by the merchant 104 that are thesame as items in the catalog of items 110. To illustrate, the merchant104 may provide information about the item 128 that is not included inthe information about the item 128 in the catalog of items 110, such asone or more reviews, one or more ratings, an expanded description,combinations thereof, and so forth.

The user device 108 includes a processor 232, computer-readable media234, and a display 236. The computer-readable media 234 is an example ofcomputer readable storage media and may include volatile memory,nonvolatile memory, removable memory, non-removable memory, or acombination thereof. For example, the computer-readable media 234 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, one ormore hard disks, solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD, DVD), orother non-transient memory technologies. The computer-readable media 234may also include one or more content viewing applications that areexecutable by the processor 232 to view electronic content provided by anumber of sources. In some cases, the content viewing applications mayinclude a browser application that may be executable to view pages ofsites provided by electronic content sources. In addition, thecomputer-readable media 234 may store a number of applications includingcomputer-readable instructions executable by the processor 232 toacquire items from the service provider 202. The user device 108 mayalso include one or more input/output devices (not shown), such as anadditional display, a touchpad, a touch screen, a pointer device,speakers, microphones, keyboard, image capture devices (e.g. camera,scanner), and the like.

The merchant device 204 includes a processor 238, computer-readablemedia 240, and a display 242. The computer-readable media 240 is anexample of computer readable storage media and may include volatilememory, nonvolatile memory, removable memory, non-removable memory, or acombination thereof. For example, the computer-readable media 240 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, one ormore hard disks, solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD, DVD), orother non-transient memory technologies. The computer-readable media 240may also include one or more content viewing applications that areexecutable by the processor 238 to view electronic content provided by anumber of sources. In some cases, the content viewing applications mayinclude a browser application that may be executable to view pages ofsites provided by electronic content sources. In addition, thecomputer-readable media 240 may store a number of applications includingcomputer-readable instructions executable by the processor 238 tocommunicate with the service provider 102 regarding the acquisition ofservices provided by the service provider 102. The merchant device 108may also include one or more input/output devices (not shown), such asan additional display, a touchpad, a touch screen, a pointer device,speakers, microphones, keyboard, image capture devices (e.g. camera,scanner), and the like.

Example Item Matching Module

FIG. 3 illustrates an example item information matching module 220 thatdetermines whether a merchant and a service provider are offering unitsof the same item for acquisition. In the illustrative implementation ofFIG. 3, the item information matching module 220 may obtain merchantitem information 302 and item catalog information 304, such asinformation included in the catalog of items 110 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.The merchant item information 302 may have been obtained from one ormore information sources as described previously with respect to FIG. 1and FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the merchant item information 302 may includelistings for a number of items. For example, the merchant iteminformation 302 may include information about ABC 16 Megapixel camera,such as an image of the camera, a description of the camera, and a priceof the camera. Additionally, the merchant item information 302 includesinformation about ABC Camera Lens, such as a UPC of the lens, an imageof the lens, a description of the lens, and a price of the lens.Further, the merchant item information 302 includes information aboutXYZ Tripod, such as a description of the tripod. The item cataloginformation 304 also includes information that may correspond toinformation included in the merchant item information 302. For example,the item catalog information 304 includes a UPC, an image, adescription, and a price of Item 123, Item 456, and Item 789. In aparticular scenario, the identifiers Item 123, Item 456, and Item 789are unique identifiers assigned to the respective items by the serviceprovider 102.

In an illustrative implementation, the item information matching module220 may apply one or more matching rules to determine whether the itemsincluded in the merchant item information 302 are the same as any of theitems included in the item catalog information 304. In one situation,the item information matching module 220 may determine whether specifiedinformation is included in both the merchant item information 302 andthe item catalog information 304 for a particular item. In some cases,the item information matching module 220 may determine a match between alisting included in the merchant item information 302 and a listingincluded in the item catalog information 304 according to similaritiesbetween one or more combinations of specified information. The iteminformation matching module 220 may analyze the information included inthe merchant item information 302 and the item catalog information 304until a specified combination of information between respective listingsincluded in the merchant item information 302 and the item cataloginformation 304 is identified.

In one example, as shown in FIG. 3, the item information matching module220 may determine that the ABC 16 Megapixel Camera included in themerchant item information 302 includes an image and at least a portionof the description that matches the image and description of the Item123 included in the item catalog information 304. Thus, in one instance,the item information matching module 220 may determine that the ABC 16Megapixel Camera of the merchant item information 302 matches the Item123 of the item catalog information 304. In another example, the iteminformation matching module 220 may determine that the UPC of the ABCCamera Lens of the merchant item information 302 is the same as the UPCof the Item 456 of the item catalog information 304. After determiningthe UPCs of the ABC Camera Lens and the Item 456 match, the iteminformation matching module 220 may stop looking for similaritiesbetween information associated with the two items. In an additionalexample, the item information matching module 220 may determine that atleast a portion of the description of the XYZ tripod matches a portionof the description of the Item 789. The item information matching module220 may also determine that the item catalog information 304 does notinclude any additional information matching the merchant iteminformation 302 for the XYZ tripod. In one implementation, a thresholdamount of the description of the XYZ tripod of the merchant iteminformation 302 may not match the description of the Item 789 of theitem catalog information 304. Accordingly, the item matching module 220may designate that the XYZ tripod and the Item 789 are not the same. Insome cases, the item information matching module 220 may requestadditional information from a merchant before determining that the XYZtripod and the Item 789 are not the same item.

Example User Interfaces

FIG. 4 is an example user interface 400 including a proposal by aservice provider, such as the service provider 102, to provide servicesto the merchant 108 with respect to items offered for acquisition by themerchant 108 that are the same as items offered by the service provider102 in a catalog of items. In particular, the user interface 300indicates that the service provider 102 has identified two items, theABC 16 Megapixel Camera and the ABC Cameral Lens, offered by themerchant 108 that match items included in a catalog of items, such asthe catalog of items 110, of the service provider 102. The userinterface 400 also provides an option 402 that is selectable to view apreview of the services that the service provider 102 can provide withrespect to the ABC 16 Megapixel Camera. Additionally, the user interface400 includes an option 404 that is selectable to view a preview of theservices that the service provider 102 can provide with respect to theABC Camera Lens. In the illustrative example of FIG. 4, the merchant 104has selected to preview the services offered by the service provider 102with respect to the ABC 16 Megapixel Camera. The request to previewthese services can be submitted to the service provider 102 in responseto the selection of the option 306 by the merchant 104.

FIG. 5 is an example user interface 500 including information about anitem offered for acquisition by the merchant 108 that may be availablefor acquisition via a site of a service provider, such as the serviceprovider 102. In particular, the user interface 500 may be a preview ofpage of a site of the service provider 102 by which users can acquirethe item ABC 16 Megapixel Camera. In one implementation, the userinterface 500 may be provided via an ecommerce site of the serviceprovider 102 that is directed to users located in a particular nation orregion of the world, such as a block of nations. In anotherimplementation, the user interface 500 may be directed to users on amore local level, such as users within a particular city or metropolitanarea.

In the illustrative implementation of FIG. 5, the user interface 500includes information 502 about the ABC 16 Megapixel Camera, such as animage of the item, a rating of the item, a price of the item, adescription of the item, features of the item, and reviews of the item.The user interface 500 also includes an option 504 that may beselectable by a user to initiate a transaction to acquire the item.Further, the user interface 500 includes an option 506 that isselectable by the merchant 108 to accept terms and conditions ofreceiving services from the service provider 102 in relation to offeringthe ABC 16 Megapixel Camera for acquisition by the service provider 102on behalf of the merchant 108. In some cases, the terms and conditionsmay include payment to the service provider 102 in exchange for theservices. The terms and conditions may also include a legal contractbetween the service provider 102 and the merchant 104 in relation toservices provided by the service provider 102 to the merchant 104. Theuser interface 500 also includes an option 408 that is selectable by themerchant 104 to decline the proposal by the service provider 102.

FIG. 6 is an example user interface 600 including information about adeal associated with an item offered for acquisition by the merchant 104that may be available for acquisition via a site of a service provider,such as the service provider 102. In particular, the user interface 600may be a preview of page of a site of the service provider 102 by whichusers can acquire a deal associated with the item ABC 16 MegapixelCamera. In addition, to the information about the ABC 16 MegapixelCamera included in the user interface 500 of FIG. 5, the user interface600 also includes terms 602 of the deal. The terms 602 may specify aduration of the deal and a discount associated with the deal. The userinterface 600 may include an option 604 that is selectable to accept theterms and conditions of the service provider 102 in association withoffering a deal for the ABC 16 Megapixel Camera and an option 606 thatis selectable by the merchant 104 to decline the proposal.

FIG. 7 is an example user interface 700 that provides options for themerchant 104 to enter data in association with an item offered foracquisition by a merchant 104 to determine whether the item is the sameas an item in a catalog of a service provider, such as the serviceprovider 102. The user interface 600 may indicate that additionalinformation about an item, such as the XYZ tripod, offered foracquisition by the merchant 104 may be provided in an attempt to matchinformation about the item with information about an item in a catalogof items, such as the catalog of items 110 of the service provider 102.In particular, the user interface 700 includes a text entry box 702 forentering a UPC of the item and a drop down box 704 for selecting animage of the item. The user interface 700 also includes an option 706that is selectable to submit the information to the service provider102.

Example Processes

FIG. 8 describes various example processes of providing services to amerchant for items included in a service provider catalog. The exampleprocesses are described in the context of the environment of FIGS. 1-7but are not limited to those environments. Each process described inthis disclosure is illustrated as a logical flow graph, each operationof which represents a sequence of operations that can be implemented inhardware, software, or a combination thereof. In the context ofsoftware, the operations represent computer-executable instructionsstored on one or more computer-readable media that, when executed by oneor more processors, perform the recited operations. Generally,computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, and the like that perform particularfunctions or implement particular abstract data types.

The computer-readable media may include non-transitory computer-readablestorage media, which may include hard drives, floppy diskettes, opticaldisks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories(RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash memory, magnetic or optical cards,solid-state memory devices, or other types of storage media suitable forstoring electronic instructions. In addition, in some embodiments thecomputer-readable media may include a transitory computer-readablesignal (in compressed or uncompressed form). Examples ofcomputer-readable signals, whether modulated using a carrier or not,include, but are not limited to, signals that a computer system hostingor running a computer program can be configured to access, includingsignals downloaded through the Internet or other networks. Finally, theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described operationscan be combined in any order and/or in parallel to implement theprocess.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an example process 800 to identify itemsoffered for acquisition by a merchant that are the same as itemsincluded in a catalog of items offered for acquisition by a serviceprovider. At 802, the process 800 includes obtaining information fromone or more sources about an item offered for acquisition by a merchant.The one or more sources may include a site of the merchant, other sitesincluding information about the merchant (e.g., ecommerce sites,merchant directory sites), physical documents including informationabout the merchant, or a combination thereof.

At 804, the process 800 includes matching a portion of the informationabout the item obtained from the one or more sources with correspondinginformation included in a catalog of items. The catalog of items mayinclude a plurality of items offered for acquisition via a serviceprovider. In a particular implementation, when a threshold amount of theinformation obtained about the item matches the correspondinginformation included in the catalog of items, the item may be designatedas being the same as an item included in the catalog of items. Inanother implementation, the item offered for acquisition by the merchantmay be designated as being the same as an item in the catalog of itemswhen specified information about the item matches information includedin the catalog of items, such as a UPC code.

At 806, the process 800 includes communicating with the merchant tooffer the item for acquisition via the service provider at least partlyin response to matching a portion of the information obtained about theitem with corresponding information included in the catalog of items. Ina particular implementation, the service provider and the merchant mayexchange emails, text messages, or telephone calls about terms of theservice provider offering the item for acquisition on behalf of themerchant, such as via a site of the service provider. Offering the itemfor acquisition via the service provider may be one of a number ofservices offered by the service provider for the item. For example, theservice provider may also provide a deal in association with the item,enhanced search results services with respect to the item, or both.

Additionally, at 808, the process 800 includes receiving a searchrequest from a user device. The search request may include one or morecriteria, such as one or more keywords. At 810, the process 800 includesdetermining that information about the item corresponds to the one ormore criteria. Further, at 812, the process 800 includes providingsearch results to the user device based, at least in part, on the one ormore criteria. The search results may include a particular result thatindicates that the merchant is offering one or more units of the itemfor acquisition. In some cases, the search results may be presented in aparticular order. In one situation, the order of the search results maydepend on whether any of the items included in the search results areprovided by merchants obtaining enhanced search results services fromthe service provider. In a particular implementation, the merchantoffering the item for acquisition may obtain enhanced search resultsservices from the service provider. In this situation, the merchant maybe emphasized with respect to other search results, such as being placedat the top of the list of search results.

Conclusion

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms ofimplementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: memory; one or moreprocessors; and computer-executable instructions maintained in thememory and executable by the one or more processors to: obtain firstinformation from scanned documents; perform an optical characterrecognition process on the first information to produce secondinformation; analyze the second information with respect to a firstmatching rule of a plurality of matching rules, the first matching rulespecifying matching between first identifiers of first items offered foracquisition by merchants and second identifiers of second items includedin a catalog of a service provider; determine that the secondinformation does not include identifiers of items; analyze the secondinformation with respect to a second matching rule of the plurality ofmatching rules, the second matching rule specifying matching between acombination of: first images of the first items and second images of thesecond items, and first descriptions of the first items and seconddescriptions of the second items; determine that a merchant and theservice provider offer units of an item for acquisition based at leastpartly on: determining that a threshold amount of a first image of theitem included in the second information corresponds with a second imageincluded in the catalog of the service provider; and determining that anadditional threshold amount of a first description of the item includedin the second information corresponds with a second description includedin the catalog of the service provider; send, from the service provider,a first communication to a computing device of the merchant to offer theitem for acquisition via the service provider; and receive a secondcommunication from the computing device specifying that the item is tobe offered for acquisition by the service provider.
 2. The system asrecited in claim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructionsmaintained in the memory and executable by the one or more processorsto: receive a request from an additional computing device of a user toacquire a unit of the item; provide a voucher to the additionalcomputing device, wherein the voucher includes an identifiercorresponding to the user and an additional identifier corresponding tothe unit of the item; and send an additional communication to theadditional computing device indicating that the user has requested toacquire the unit of the item, the additional communication including theidentifier and the additional identifier.
 3. The system as recited inclaim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructions maintainedin the memory and executable by the one or more processors to scrape oneor more sites related to the merchant by analyzing code of one or morepages of a site of the one or more sites to at least partially obtaininformation about a plurality of items offered for acquisition by themerchant.
 4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifiersof the items include universal product codes (UPCs) of the items.
 5. Oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media havingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: obtaining first information from scanned documents;performing an optical character recognition process on the firstinformation to produce second information; analyzing the secondinformation with respect to a first matching rule of a plurality ofmatching rules, the first matching rule specifying matching betweenfirst identifiers of first items offered for acquisition by merchantsand second identifiers of second items included in a catalog of aservice provider; determining that the second information does notinclude identifiers of items; analyzing the second information withrespect to a second matching rule of the plurality of matching rules,the second matching rule specifying matching between a combination of:first images of the first items and second images of the second items,and first descriptions of the first items and second descriptions of thesecond items; determining that a merchant and the service provider offerunits of an item for acquisition based at least partly on: determiningthat a threshold amount of a first image of the item included in thesecond information corresponds with a second image included in thecatalog of the service provider; and determining that an additionalthreshold amount of a first description of the item included in thesecond information corresponds with a second description included in thecatalog of the service provider; sending, from the service provider, afirst communication to a computing device of the merchant to offer theitem for acquisition via the service provider; and receiving a secondcommunication from the computing device specifying that the item is tobe offered for acquisition by the service provider.
 6. The one or morecomputer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: receiving a request from an additional computingdevice of a user to acquire a unit of the item; providing a voucher tothe additional computing device, wherein the voucher includes anidentifier corresponding to the user and an additional identifiercorresponding to the unit of the item; and sending an additionalcommunication to the additional computing device indicating that theuser has requested to acquire the unit of the item, the additionalcommunication including the identifier and the additional identifier. 7.The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, whereinthe operations further comprise scraping one or more sites related tothe merchant by analyzing code of one or more pages of a site of the oneor more sites to at least partially obtain information about a pluralityof items offered for acquisition by the merchant.
 8. The one or morecomputer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the identifiersof the items include universal product codes (UPCs) of the items.